Social Commentaries

Sonnet: Not for the luckless buds our roots may bear

by Hilaire Belloc 1870–1953

From Sonnets and Verse (1923)

Social Commentaries

Not for the luckless buds our roots may bear
Now all in bloom, now seared and cankered lying
Will I entreat you, lest they should compare
Foredoomed humanity with the fall of flowers.
Hold thou with me the chaste communion rare
And touch with life this mortal case of ours:
You’re lifted up beyond the power of dying:
I die, as bounded things die everywhere.

You’re voiced companionship, I’m silence lonely;
You’re stuff, I’m void; you’re living, I’m decay.
I fall, I think, to-night and ending only;
You rise, I know, through still advancing day.
And knowing living gift were life for me
In narrow room of rhyme I fixed it certainly.

MLA

Belloc, Hilaire. “Sonnet: Not for the luckless buds our roots may bear.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/belloc/107/.

Chicago

Belloc, Hilaire. “Sonnet: Not for the luckless buds our roots may bear.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/belloc/107/.

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